The ATCA (Advanced Telecommunications Computing Architecture, ATCA) is an open industry standard architecture formulated and developed by the PICMG (Peripheral Component Interconnect Industrial Computer Manufacturers Group), and is oriented as a common hardware platform technology for communications equipment and computing servers. Communications equipment and computing server equipment that meet various requirements may be constructed through various modules based on ATCA standards.
PICMG 3.0 standards define the structure of the ATCA and specifications such as backboard interconnection topology. It is stipulated that the ATCA has a structure of a backboard in the middle with a front board and a rear board, where exchange boards (Hub Board) and service boards (Node Board, also referred to as a node board) are front boards, and service boards are interconnected through Full Mesh (Full Mesh) topology architecture or through exchange boards. According to the PICMG 3.0 standards, each subrack of the ATCA supports 16 slots at the most, and supports 16 boards (including exchange boards and service boards) correspondingly. When service boards are interconnected through exchange boards by adopting a dual star topology architecture, the ATCA supports 14 service boards and two exchange boards at the most, and each exchange board is interconnected with the other 15 boards (14 service boards and one exchange board) through the backboard.
During application, limited by the technological level, an ATCA product generally supports only 14 slots, that is, supporting 14 boards. During application, two exchange boards are connected to 12 service boards through a dual star topology architecture. As shown in FIG. 1, an exchange board 1 is connected to the other 12 service boards and an exchange board 2. Similarly, the exchange board 2 is connected to the other 12 service boards and the exchange board 1.
PICMG 3.0 specifications also define the size of ATCA boards and subracks, where connection zones of boards and the backboard are divided into three zones: Zone1 (zone 1), Zone2 (zone 2) and Zone3 (zone 3). Zone1 and Zone2 are defined according to the specifications, to ensure that ATCA boards of all manufacturers are compatible. Zone3 may be customized, and different manufacturers define the Zone3 differently. Zone2 is defined as a Fabric interface (fabric interface), which is the major service data interaction zone of the entire ATCA, and is also referred to as a service data plane. Referring to FIG. 2, in Zone2, each slot provides four signal channels constituted by difference sending and receiving port pairs to implement a bidirectional Fabric (fabric) exchange channel, which is mainly used for broadband data exchange (such as Internet protocol IP data with relatively large bandwidth) between service boards and exchange boards. During implementation, four difference sending and receiving port pairs on an exchange board are connected to a service board through the backboard to form a Fabric exchange channel. Each difference sending and receiving port pair includes a pair of difference receiving ports and a pair of difference sending ports. For the convenience of description, four difference sending and receiving port pairs are called a “Fabric port group” for short.
With extensive application of the ATCA platform in the telecommunications computing control field, in many application scenarios, in addition to the IP service, some narrowband services (with smaller bandwidth as compared with services implemented through Fabric channels), such as the FC (Fiber Channel, FC), TDM (Time-division multiplexing, TDM), SAS (Serial Attached SCSI, SAS), SCSI (Small Computer System Interface, SCSI), SATA (Serial ATA, SATA) and SSD (solid-state drive, SSD), need to be supported. In the prior art, the method for meeting requirements of services such as the FC, SCSI, SAS and TDM on the ATCA platform is: adopting an ASIC or logic chip (such as an FPGA) to convert narrowband service data of the FC, SCSI, TDM and SAS into IP packets, and performing service data exchange through a Fabric exchange channel (one of the signal channels constituted by difference sending and receiving port pairs) of the ATCA.
In the implementation of the present invention, the inventors find that the prior art at least has the following problems.
In the prior art, when data of narrowband services such as the TDM is converted into IP packets, and data exchange is implemented through a Fabric exchange channel, the IP protocol is complex. Therefore, when a dedicated ASIC or logic chip (such as an FPGA) is adopted to implement IP packet conversion, implementation at the interface side is complex, and in addition, a certain time delay is caused by the processing, thereby affecting the service performance.